A Child Waits Foundation
Adoption Grants
Domestic and International Adoption
501(c)3 Charitable Foundation
Family Stories
Domestic Adoption 2025
In 2025 we awarded grants to help 135 children to be adopted from 17 different countries and 28 states in the USA. Some of their wonderful pictures and adoption experiences are recounted below in the family's own words.
Evangeline - Michigan
To our kind friends at A Child Waits Foundation,
We are so excited to share that we finalized our daughter Evangeline Hope's adoption on August 6th. We are so very thankful for your support and help in completing her adoption! What a gift it has been to welcome her into our family and love and care for her every day. The grant we were awarded from A Child Waits has been such a blessing to our family, allowing for bonding and enjoying these early days together without stressing about final expenses. We sincerely thank you for that gift and for your efforts to be able to provide that opportunity for adoptive families. It means so much.
When my husband and I first married, we mentioned adoption casually, but God really put it on our hearts a few years later. For the next 10 years, we looked into different avenues - domestic adoption, foster care, even international adoption - but time after time we ran into closed doors. We continued to pray and to trust that God's timing is perfect and His plans are best.
In 2022, after a conversation with a friend, we felt prompted to take a closer look at domestic adoption again. We reached out to Adoption Partners of Michigan and knew they were just the right fit. By the end of that year, we were officially waiting.
In spring of 2023, we faced some challenges with our home as we discovered extensive water damage and mold. While this was a very stressful time for us, it turned out to be a blessing as we were able to remodel and declutter making our home a more welcoming place for another child. As we tried to discern how long to remain waiting to match, we settled on two years. As the two year mark approached, we began to process, even through tears, that our journey might end with a different outcome than we had prayed for and envisioned.
One week before Christmas, we got the call. A baby girl had been born and was ready to join our family. The day before the two year mark, we brought our precious Evangeline Hope home from the NICU. She had been born early. While the wait was longer than we hoped, we now understand that God's plan for our family had always been Evangeline. We are all crazy about her. Enoch is thriving in his new role of big brother, and Eleora got the sister she always dreamed of. Evangeline has been such a happy baby, and we are so very grateful to have her a part of our family. We can't imagine our life without this precious girl. Blessings to you!
Layla - South Carolina
We knew we were supposed to be parents, but the road was not simple. Infertility and loss left us wondering if it would ever come true. At times we questioned if we had done something wrong or if we were being punished. Through it all we prayed, reflected, and prepared ourselves. We learned that hope is a powerful thing. To anyone still waiting to be parents, we want to say there is hope. Please adopt. So much is still within your control. We worked to become the best versions of ourselves for the day we would finally see miracles happen in real time. From the very first meeting with our attorney to
the day Layla came home, only 42 days passed. Those weeks were a blur, and then suddenly we were holding the most beautiful little girl in our arms.
Layla Ann was born on May 14, 2025, and from the moment she arrived she has been the gift that keeps on giving. Now at four months old, Layla is thriving. She is full of smiles, curious eyes, and a joy that fills our home. The joy of having her makes the hard times fade into the background, and we know without a doubt that she was worth the wait, the struggle, and the pain. To anyone still in the waiting, it is worth it. Keep going. We are deeply grateful to A Child Waits Foundation. Your generous grant has helped ease the heavy costs of adoption and medical care, allowing us to focus fully on Layla during these first precious months. Thank you for standing with us and making it possible for our daughter’s story to be one of love, faith, and family.
Jack - Ohio
I always knew I wanted to adopt. I loved my childhood – filled with laughter, tradition, and family – and I knew, that someday, there would be a baby out there who would need a home just like that! I never pictured adopting on my own but sometimes life has its own plans and after thirteen months on the waiting list, a birth mom picked me. Three
weeks later, my son, Jack, was born. The overwhelming emotion I’ve felt since he was born is Gratitude. A thousand little puzzle pieces had to come together for Jack and me to be a family – from his birth mom choosing adoption for him, to her sister recommending the agency I worked with, to my sister telling me to go for it on my own, and to places like A Child Waits Foundation for helping ease the burden of adoption costs.
It's unfortunate that creating families by giving kids stable, loving homes through adoption is so expensive. Thank you to the Nelson Family for recognizing that not only does every child deserve special love and attention, but for also seeing that adoptive parents, who are ready to provide that love, may need some financial help to make it possible. Your generosity to people you’ve never met has created families and changed lives – big and small. Thank you!
Eliana - Canada
We wanted to send our most heartfelt thank you to A Child Waits Foundation for your
generosity that made our adoption of Eliana possible. After going through the process
of applying to adopt for over 2 years, we received the call a few days before
Christmas, there is a baby that needs a home, but she was born quite premature.
We ran to meet her the next morning, and we are happy to report that even with her
being born premature at 26 weeks, she is doing amazing now without any health
issues. She is our Christmas miracle child, and we are thankful for her every day. We
wish you a Merry Christmas from all of us at our home, and we pray for blessings for
everyone involved in your organization.
Micah - South Carolina
We were so fortunate to receive a grant from A Child Waits Foundation for the adoption of our son, Micah, in 2025.
Adoption comes with so many unknowns and often large fees that make it difficult to move forward with the process. When we decided to say yes to our son’s case, we were so nervous about coming up with the funds. A Child Waits helped to bridge that financial gap and we cannot express our gratitude enough!
We were always met with kindness when speaking with A Child Waits and you could tell they really care about adoption. We will forever be thankful for the work that A Child Waits is doing to help remove the financial barrier in adoption and are so glad they are a part of our adoption story!
Moses - Tennessee
Thank you to A Child Waits Foundation for your generous financial support of our adoption. Moses was born March 11th and officially became our son on May 22nd. It has been such a joy for us to welcome him into our family.
The spring and summer were full of baby snuggles and making special family memories. God has truly blessed us and answered our prayers. Thank you so much for allowing God to use you, and for choosing to be a part of our story!
Riley - Pennsylvania
We got married later in life and were excited to start a family. Shortly thereafter, we found out that we weren’t able to have children without IVF plus ICSI procedures. Even then there were no guarantees that it would work or how many rounds would be needed. Since we definitely wanted children, we decided to adopt rather than go through the IVF process.
We started our adoption journey with a small local agency, but we didn’t have many viable cases. After several years, we then switched to American Adoptions hoping to have more success. We started with American Adoptions at the height of COVID and there were not as many adoptions happening and the prices had increased dramatically. We patiently waited and prayed.
Finally, after about eight years of total waiting, we got a call from American Adoptions on January 27, 2025, that there was an adoption case about an hour and a half from our home. The baby was already born, and we headed to the hospital the next day to meet him. We took him home two days after he was born and began our life as parents. Because it happened so quickly, we had to navigate work, FMLA, getting supplies, reworking schedules, etc. so it was a very busy start.
Having Riley was so worth it, and we were so excited about our new roles as mom and dad. We settled into our new routine and made sure all of his needs were met while slowly introducing him to more family and friends. We have celebrated all of his milestones and progress and learned by trial and error. He turned 6 months on July 27, 2025. He was born small and has gained a healthy weight. He is a happy and social little boy who is now meeting all of his milestones. His finalization was July 28, 2025, which was another day to celebrate. We look forward to watching him continue to develop and thrive. We have been very blessed by the support of our family and friends as well as adoption professionals. We greatly appreciate the financial assistance from A Child Waits Foundation so we could give Riley all the support he needed for all areas of his growth. The assistance has relieved a lot of stress for us and has allowed us to maintain our focus on Riley’s development.
Leo - Florida
We are so thankful to be recipients of a generous grant from
A Child Waits Foundation - for the second time. All three of
our children joined our family through adoption, and each
journey was made possible by the incredible generosity of
family, friends, and organizations like A Child Waits.
Our third adoption came as a surprise, but we were overjoyed to say “yes.” Because of this grant, we were able to bring our son home and keep biological siblings together - without the financial strain that often comes with domestic adoption. We’re deeply grateful for the role A Child Waits Foundation has played in helping us grow our family and keep our children together.
Ruby - New York
A Child Waits Foundation helped us with a generous grant to help make this adoption possible. Our family is so very grateful for the financial help you have provided to us and families like us pursuing adoption. The process from beginning to end is cumbersome, tiring and expensive, but rewarding and the best thing we have done.
We first met at the Adoptive Parents Committee Annual Conference in June 2024 in New York. The passion your organization exudes for helping families looking to adopt is incredible. As a same-sex couple, building our family came down to two choices: surrogacy or adoption. Michael and I wanted to give a baby a home. When we started the journey, we were shocked, to say the least, with regards to cost. There are many organizations out there, but A Child Waits Foundation stepped up to help us make our dreams come true – becoming parents.
Michael and I welcomed Ruby Jean into our family in December 2024. The adoption was a complicated one and it was not finalized until March 2026. It meant more legal fees, longer periods of uncertainty, and simply more stress. Financially, we were comfortable because of your generous gift. Thank you for the work you do and for all those that donate and support A Child Waits. Here are some pictures of Ruby and us over the first 15 months of her beautiful life. Now that the adoption is finalized, we are looking forward to starting our journey to finding a sibling for Ruby!
Anya - Utah
Our story began when Clayton and I got married in May of 2020. We felt God’s desire to grow our family soon after getting married. We began trying to grow our family and within a few months conceived our first child. Unfortunately, we lost that pregnancy around 8 weeks. Though grieving the loss of our first child, God called us to continue trying to grow our family. It was shortly after our first loss and seeing a different doctor that we learned about our infertility diagnoses. After undergoing two surgeries, we found ourselves pregnant again. We were so excited to grow our family. Devastatingly, we lost our second baby at 9 weeks. After this, we once again went down the road of surgeries, procedures, and series of injections and medications. Throughout this process, we felt God opening our hearts to adoption. We began praying about adoption, researching adoption, and letting God work in our hearts.
After one particular procedure, Clayton and I knew it was time to begin pursuing adoption. God was calling us to adopt and we obeyed his command. As we completed each step of the adoption process, we felt more and more in line with God’s plan for our marriage and growing family. At first, we thought this meant conceiving a child on our own, but over time, God has put on our hearts to adopt a child.
Once we surrendered our heart to God’s will for growing our family, He opened the doors and very quickly! One month after our home study was complete, we matched with our daughter’s birth mom and six weeks later, Aleeyah was born! It was a whirlwind of emotions, paperwork, and travel. We earnestly sought God each step of the way and prayed numerous prayers. What we experienced and witnessed through our daugher’s adoption was nothing short of a miracle.
Shortly after we began our life as a family of three, we began to feel God calling us to open our hearts towards growing our family again through adoption. We spent time praying and seeking God’s wisdom for next steps. After our daughter’s first birthday, we felt it was time to begin the adoption process again. To our surprise, we matched very quickly and our second baby girl was born! We never thought we would be living the ‘two under two’ life but here we are. We love our family God has created! We couldn’t have brought our second daughter home without the help of A Child Waits Foundation and we are forever so thankful!
Eleanor - Ohio
Our little family began the adoption process in January 2024, knowing that adoption was the right path for us to grow our family, as Mikayla was adopted as an infant. Shortly after completing the home study process, we received our first match which did not end in an adoption. A few months later, we received another match which also did not end in adoption.
At this point in the process, we were extremely disheartened and weren’t sure if/when we may have a successful adoption. We went through the full range of emotions and even questioned if this was still the right path for us. That’s when we received another match for a baby who was due in December 2024. Because we were able to match with this expectant mother earlier in her pregnancy, we had the unique opportunity to get to know her and her family and to attend OB appointments with her. It was evident that this situation was comfortable, loving, and healthy for everyone involved.
It ultimately led to the adoption of our sweet daughter. We could not be more thankful for her birth mother making the decision to choose us as our daughter’s parents. Without the support of the A Child Waits Foundation adoption grant, we would not have been able to cover the expenses of our adoption. A Child Waits Foundation is making adoption more accessible to families like ours, which we will forever be thankful for.
Enea - New York
Welcome to the family! We're overjoyed to share our adoption journey with you. As a gay couple, we've always dreamed of growing our family, and adoption felt like the perfect way to make that dream a reality.
With a personal connection to adoption through Brian’s aunt who was adopted, we knew we were on the right path. The adoption process can be overwhelming, but we were determined to make it happen. Thankfully, a grant helped alleviate some of the financial burdens, allowing us to focus on opening our hearts and home to our new addition.
On December 18th, our lives changed forever. We brought our precious baby Enea Thomas home, and it felt like our family was finally complete. In that instant, we knew that Enea was meant to be ours. As we've gotten to know our little Enea, we've discovered that he loves going for long walks, grooving to musical toys, and splashing around in the water! He's already taken his first swimming lessons at just three months old – we couldn't believe how naturally he took to it!
Enea has also already stolen the hearts of his grandparents, aunts, and uncles. They've welcomed him with open arms, and it's clear that he's already wrapped them around his little finger. Our home, once filled with love, is now overflowing with joy, laughter, and adventure. We're so grateful to have Enea as a part of our family, and we can't wait to see what the future holds for our little family.
Thank you, A Child Waits Foundation, for joining us on this journey and for being a part of our love story.